


Compartmental

by DarlaBlack



Series: Ficlets & Prompt Responses [9]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Comfort, Developing Relationship, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-08
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-04-23 03:04:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19142272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarlaBlack/pseuds/DarlaBlack
Summary: They are learning to be two versions of themselves.





	Compartmental

They are learning to decompress. They are learning to be themselves, to turn off Agent Mulder and Agent Scully in the presence of each other. She learns to let it happen when she comes through her door, home at last, when her shoes come off, her stockings, and her bare toes grip the hardwood. She turns to look at him where he is hanging up his coat and she can’t help but smile.

“You’re you again,” she says.

He is toeing off his shoes and walking toward her in socks. “Breathe, Scully.” He puts his arms around her and tugs on the sleeve of her jacket. She lets him pull it down off her arms. He tosses it to the back of the couch. She closes her eyes and pushes her cheek into his chest.

They try to keep themselves separate, but it can become difficult. Their love bleeds through, as it always has, the thin tissue of professionalism that they wrap around their working selves. On a case somewhere far away and too warm and too many smallish bodies, she knocks on his door holding paperwork. But when she is inside, she sets the folder down.

“Can we be us for a minute?” And he knows what she means. He nods and she steps into his personal space. It’s not for sex, but just for a break, for a short time to have that other version of themselves. They’ve been fighting on the case: disagreeing too much, biting at each other, and he’s said some things that dig at her confidence. She hates when he’s like that. She looks up at him now, the hurt in her face, and waits for him to touch her.

He shakes his head. “I’m sorry, Scully. It’s not you.”

“It’s not?”

Her arms have crossed over her chest defensively so he reaches out to take one elbow in each hand and pull her closer. “It’s not. It’s the case.”

She sighs.

“Come here,” he says, both arms coming around her entire closed-off body. “Just for a minute.” He scoops her up and drops them both onto the bed and she laughs in spite of herself.

Face-to-face on the mattress, they gaze. His palm lands warm on her hip. “Dana,” he says, like it’s a key, like it will unlock her. “Dana Dana Dana,” he whispers. It’s working. She smiling, but reluctantly, her eyes giving away how she loves to hear her name while her mouth tries to pout. “I love you,” he says. “I respect you,” he says.” “I’m an asshole sometimes.”

She nods and holds onto that pouting smile. She tugs at the bottom of her skirt to shift the fabric so she can throw a leg over his hip. “I just need a minute,” she says, maneuvering the weight of him to press her into the mattress. He drops over her, cocoons her, buries his nose in her hair and his hands under her shirt to feel the soft skin of her back.

“Just a minute,” he reassures.

But she wakes a few hours later to him curled around her and his palm heavy on her breast. She wants it to be like it is in their apartments, where she would strip and snuggle to him and press her mouth to his in the dark. But this is a strange motel room and there are bodies and local police officers depending on their professionalism so she turns in the circle of his arms and places a hand on his stubbled jaw to wake him.

“Mulder, she says. When his eyes come open she watches them for a moment. She finds his hand and pulls it to her lips. “Thank you.”

He cheats and pulls her mouth to his before she climbs out of the bed. “G’night, Scully.”

She breathes deep, settling the weight of her agent self back onto her shoulders. “Night, Mulder.”

And she walks with her head up, back to her own room.


End file.
